Which taxi/ride-share app for Santiago & Buenos Aires?

September 29, 2015 5:11 AM

Which taxi or ride-share app to use in Santiago and Buenos Aires: Easy Taxi / Safer Taxi / Uber / other / none?

I'll be traveling in Santiago and Buenos Aires, and have been looking at taxi or ride-share apps to use in both those cities. I've looked a little bit a Easy Taxi and Safer Taxi, and am familiar with Uber (available in Santiago but not Buenos Aires) as I've used it within the US. Which is best?

General reasons for wanting to use an app:

• Ability to input destination in advance may reduce language problems, as I speak very little Spanish — think tourist phrasebook level, barely. (Yes, I'm prepared to muddle through if necessary, if my phone dies or something.)
• Ability to see fare in advance, rather than trying to negotiate it with the driver and/or be surprised by an extraordinarly high fare upon arrival.
• Ability to pay via phone.

In what I've looked at so far I have no strong reason to favor Easy Taxi over Safer Taxi or vice versa, so I'm interested in advice or anecdotes about either of these: both the app itself (Android, if it matters) and the general service level. Is one more available/quicker/nicer/safer/better in some other way than the other?

As for Uber, the pro there is that I'm familiar with it, and the familiarity brings a certain level of reassurance, but I'm also aware of the ethical issues with their "we're a ride-share service, not a taxi, wink wink, nudge nudge" attitude — at least in the US, and I'm assuming the same in Chile, but feel free to correct me if the situation is different there.

I'm also willing to consider other apps I haven't discovered yet, and also "don't use an app at all" arguments, either of the "just get a taxi the old-fashioned way" or the "public transportation is very easy to use in [Santiago|Buenos Aires], even if you know very little Spanish" variety.

posted by DevilsAdvocate to Travel & Transportation (6 answers total)

i don't use an app myself (i live on a road with one going past every minute) but there is info here for santiago (despite the title it includes apps).
posted by andrewcooke at 5:17 AM on September 29, 2015

also, sorry, reading your question more, the metro system in both cities is preferable (imho) if it gets you where you want to go (chileans really don't trust taxi drivers much, although when i (rarely) use one they seem fine). and, in santiago, at least, google maps will also show bus routes. for bus + metro in santiago you need a bip card - easiest place to buy one is in a metro station (but ask your hotel - i would guess that fancier hotels give them to guests, or maybe people staying at fancier hotels use cars? i don't know....).
posted by andrewcooke at 5:28 AM on September 29, 2015

In reference to Chile:
Only Uber will let you pay via phone and input a destination, Easy Taxi and Safer Taxi are basically just ways of calling the cab.
Taxis in general are safe in Santiago, you may get the gringo route, but you won't get actually assaulted, robbed or kidnapped. There's no good taxi / bad taxi thing (like there is in BsAs).
The Metro's clean and fast., though quite full during rush hour, and doesn't cover the whole city.
I'd use Uber in general, but don't stress if you have to jump in a cab: just do it, muddle through, maybe write down your destination, and you'll be alright.
posted by signal at 6:26 AM on September 29, 2015

Best answer: In Buenos Aires, I don't use, nor have I heard of anyone else that does, an app. Getting a taxi the old-fashioned way is easy anywhere in the city proper, and public transit (subway, buses) is easy and good. If you want to go the mass transit route, you'll need to get a SUBE card (tarjeta SUBE) which you can buy at a lot of kioscos for about 20 pesos, and then put cash on it. Single rides on the bus are under $4 (about 40 cents US).

A good website for seeing your mass transit options when planning a trip is http://comollego.ba.gob.ar/.
posted by dr. boludo at 7:08 AM on September 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

finally, to get to+from the aiport in stgo, you use a radio taxi (not the kind of taxi you see on the streets) or "transfer" (shared minibus). it's simplest, when arriving, to buy a ticket in the baggage area, or just after you leave the baggage xray. transvip is the biggest company; delphos the next largest (and less reliable in our experience).
posted by andrewcooke at 8:50 AM on September 29, 2015

Response by poster: Just to follow up, I ended up doing the "just get a taxi the old-fashioned way and muddle through with tourist phrasebook Spanish" and that worked just fine. And actually I only used taxis for getting between my hotels and the airports. In Santiago, things I wanted to see were within walking distance of my hotel (although I have a generous definition of "walking distance," and plus I was there only a few days, not nearly long enough; had I been there longer I would've started trying to work out the metro). In Buenos Aires I used the Subte (metro), which I found not too difficult, especially with a station just a few blocks from my hotel. Thanks for the advice, everyone!
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:27 AM on December 4, 2015